The US has deployed eight warships, a nuclear submarine, and ten F-35 fighter jets to the Caribbean. The US government claims that this action aims to combat drug trafficking in Venezuela. Additionally, Trump has authorized CIA attacks within the country.

As of Oct. 15, the US has attacked five small boats off the coast of Venezuela in international waters. The latest attack has raised the known death toll to 27.

Experts and human rights organizations have condemned these attacks. Even if these boats had drug traffickers on board, it does not justify labeling the individuals as armed combatants.

Daphne Eviatar, the director of Amnesty International’s Security With Human Rights program, remarked on the Sept. 15 attack, stating, “This is an extrajudicial execution, which is murder.”

“All available evidence suggests that President Trump’s lethal strikes in the Caribbean constitute murder, pure and simple,” said Jeffrey Stein, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project.

However, U.N. data indicate that Venezuela is not involved in drug trafficking. Pino Arlacchi, the former Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), stated, “The Venezuelan government’s collaboration in the fight against drug trafficking was among the best in South America, rivaled only by Cuba’s impeccable record. This makes Trump’s narrative of a ‘narco-state’ in Venezuela sound like geopolitically motivated slander.” 

What lies behind these pretexts?

The geopolitical interest in Venezuela is often linked to its vast oil reserves. Under Hugo Chavez, who was elected in 1998, Venezuela began to build a popular democracy, pursue economic independence, ensure equitable wealth distribution, and combat corruption. In 2015, the US government imposed economic and political sanctions on Venezuela, which led to a severe decline in the country’s economy, widespread suffering among its population, and a rise in emigration. Venezuela has worked hard to recover. The US’s recent attacks align with a history of actions that undermine Venezuela’s sovereignty.

What is it like to live in a country threatened with war and invasion by the largest military power in history?

Giselle P., a biologist and ecologist in Caracas, Venezuela, shared her thoughts on “waiting for the invasion” and how the Venezuelan people have developed their resilience in a recent interview. Her comments are as follows:

“It’s been 25 years since the revolution. We’ve seen every which way to take us down … How can you just go and blow people up? The US has always ignored international law in Latin America; we can take lessons from that, from history. I was listening to a Cuban song called Waiting for the Invasion [Esperando la Invasión by Carlos Puebla], and it’s a calm song, very Cuban; it gives me strength.

“I find strength in many things. We’ve seen many things, overcome many things. Trump has a certain cockiness, and that is going to be expressed in the way that they attack us. I think they’re going to mess around and find out. They think we’re this small country, incompetent. But you don’t carry out a socialist revolution in a country that is close to the US, with so much oil under its feet, by being silly, incompetent, incapable. We have done this through strategy, we did it through competence, through dedication, and this is what we still have. We want to continue with our revolution. We want to continue having sovereignty over our own oil, and this is what’s going to happen. 

“There are over four million people prepared to defend in People’s Militias. We’ve been resisting for 25 years; we’ve been through a lot and therefore we are very organized. The militias are over 16 years old, and now more people are enlisting. The people who have resisted the economic sanctions that have been very rough on our systems—our electrical systems, technological systems, our food systems, our everything—what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. We’ve become self-reliant for many things in our food system that we didn’t used to rely on ourselves for. The resistance is not just now; it has been built up and now we’re seeing more people enlisting in these militias. The people who have been in Venezuela resisting are willing to continue to do so under whatever circumstances come our way.”

“Something that happened to me this morning: my little girl—she’s eight—she was listening to music from different parts of the world, Chinese music, music from Egypt, whatever. Then she comes back to Venezuelan traditional music. It struck me that music from each country sounds different, and you don’t have to be an expert to perceive that and to be warmed within, when you hear what rings true to you. When I heard that music, I felt: this is what they’re attacking, this is what the United States is trying to change, to denigrate, to disappear. And that sense of ‘This is me, this is what moves me, what moves my daughter…’ That makes you want to defend what is yours and—you were asking me whether I thought the militias could really have the strength that it requires, and I think that this feeling of wanting to preserve what is yours is what gives it strength. And the organization that has been necessary to survive under the economic siege that the US has brought upon us in Venezuela is what gives us the tactical strength as well so that I think that in our past, it’s just love for what you are, for what you are trying to build, for the dream that you are trying to build, and just the experience that we have.

“As Chávez said, we’re a peaceful country, we are a peaceful revolution, but we are not unarmed. When we went out of our country to participate in wars it was for the independence of Latin America, and that is what Venezuela is, was, and continues to be.”